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Food waste (FW) in Australia costs an estimated $8 to 10 billion per year, and is associated with detrimental environmental and socio-economic implications such as greenhouse gas emissions and loss of human and natural capital. Preventing domestic food waste (DFW) generation and/or redirecting these resources to recyclable outputs is an important policy issue, however effective policy must first begin with an understanding of behavioural drivers for DFW generation. To examine this issue, a case study was conducted in two local government areas in Australia. Using focus group discussions, consumers’ understanding of and opinions about DFW generation, diversion and prevention options were assessed. Four hypothetical DFW policy options were explored: these included diversion options of home/backyard composting, community composting, and a residential FW collection program; and a prevention option, which was education programs to avoid over purchasing and over consumption. Home/backyard composting and education were the first and second preferred options, respectively. The sub-sample of residents were already practicing helpful food waste reduction habits, such as home composting and frugality in food spending and consumption habits. The findings demonstrate that understanding residents’ views requires an exploration of the complex psychological, socio-economic, environmental, and regulatory factors that shape opinions and behaviours towards food utilisations. The research demonstrates the potential value in embedding community perspectives in policy instruments, with the aim of encouraging sustainable food consumption and utilisation behaviours in regional communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household food waste greatly contributes to global environmental issues, such as climate change or extensive use of restricted natural resources (water, land etc.). Therefore, an intervention study was conducted to promote household food waste-prevention in a sample of German households ( N = 217). By integrating so far identified perceptual, motivational and behavioral predictors, a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain household food waste-prevention was initially developed. Based on this framework, an appropriate intervention strategy was derived consisting of providing action knowledge, using a public commitment- and a goal setting-technique. Thereby, the main objective of the study was to increase the likelihood of household food waste-prevention in the participating households by improving household members’ performance of relevant food waste-preventing behaviors (e.g. planning grocery shopping in advance). Based on a 2 × 2-control group design, results indicated the effectiveness of the chosen intervention strategy by revealing a stronger improvement of self-reported performances of the recorded food waste-preventing behaviors in the experimental group compared to the control group four weeks following its implementation. Thus, the present intervention study not only provides several entry points for various environmental psychological based intervention strategies to promote household food waste-prevention but also delivers empirical indications for their behavioral effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the study was to get detailed data on amounts and composition of edible food waste from Norwegian households, based on detailed waste composition analyses from two municipalities/regions in Norway. The importance of age, number of persons and residence type of each household for the amount of waste was studied statistically. Residual waste from 220 households in Fredrikstad and Hallingdal was sorted and weighted specifically for each household, and analyzed for total waste, total food waste, edible food waste, food in original packaging and six types of food. The study showed that each household generated 8.86 kg total waste per week, of which 3.76 kg was food waste, 2.17 kg edible food waste and 0.60 kg edible food waste in original packaging. Fresh bakery products (mainly bread) constituted 27% of the edible food waste, fruits and vegetables 24%, left-overs of prepared food 22%, meat and fish 8%, dairy products 6% and other types of food 22%. There were significantly higher amounts of waste from the city of Fredrikstad than from the rural area of Hallingdal regarding total waste, food waste and edible waste, as well as fresh bakery products. In Fredrikstad city, no significant differences could be identified between different geographic areas, residence types or age groups, mostly due to variations between the samples and small sample sizes. Based in results from this study and a survey of more than 50 conventional waste composition analyses from Norwegian municipalities, the amount of edible food waste per capita in Norway was estimated as about 46.3 kg/year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the antecedents of household food waste reduction is an important step in the development of effective and efficient interventions. This prospective study tested the utility of applying an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to household food waste reduction. At baseline, participants ( N = 279) completed a questionnaire designed to measure the following cognitive constructs derived from the extended TPB model: intention, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, self-identity, anticipated regret, moral norm and descriptive norm. At follow-up, participants ( N = 204) completed a questionnaire assessing their household food waste behaviour. The extended TPB model accounted for a substantial amount (64%) of the variance in intention, with attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and anticipated regret emerging as significant linear predictors. Furthermore intention significantly predicted the likelihood that participants had reduced their household fruit and vegetable waste at follow-up; however, the amount of variance in behaviour accounted for by the TPB model was relatively small (5%). Results demonstrate the utility of applying an extended theory of planned behaviour model to predict motivation and – to a lesser extent – behaviour, in the context of household fruit and vegetable waste reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our reply to Grainger and Stewart (2017) we concur with their observation on the need for evidence-based synthesis in examining the efficacy of behaviour change interventions. We argue that our paper (Young et al., 2017) makes a contribution to the body of knowledge on behaviour change and in so doing it provides an important piece of the jigsaw in understanding the influence of social media on food waste behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]